Farm complaints over utility work continue

Friday

Nov 16, 2012 at 3:00 PM

By Dennis PelhamDaily Telegram Staff Writer

Complaints about a contractor disrupting farmland during installation of a fiber optic cable in the Blissfield area were brought to the Lenawee County Road Commission board for a third time on Thursday.

A Riga Township farmer complained the contractor has rutted fields and left piles of dirt on private land outside the road right of way on Horton Road in Riga Township this week. Other complaints in the past month have involved cutting field tiles and destroying crops.

The road commission is required by state law to issue permits for installation of public utilities in its rights of way, said managing director Scott Merillat. Lenawee County requires the utilities to be at the outside edge of the right of way, he said, in order to avoid conflicts with future road projects.

“Nothing in our permit allows them to trespass on your property,” Merillat said.

Board member Robert Emery said property owners can take legal action over damage to their property by a utility.

“They have no right to trespass on your property,” Emery said. “That’s your responsibility to do something about it, not ours. We don’t have any authority on private property.”

The road commission does have clear authority over the right of way, and state law requires it to permit public utilities to use it, said road commission attorney Jeffrey Juby.

A change in state law in the 1980s removed private property in the right of way from property tax rolls, he said. And a Michigan Supreme Court ruling established road agencies’ authority over use of rights of way, he said.

The road commission generally has no objection to farming on rights of way, he said.

“That’s fine. It’s beneficial,” Juby said.

Merillat said road commission regulations require utilities be installed 32 feet from the center of the right of way.

“We want them away from the road,” he said. By keeping utilities at a distance, he said, “when we come back through with culverts or projects we don’t run into cables.”